1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a program for implementing the method, and a storage medium storing the program. In particular, the present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method that perform image processing such as editing, correction, and processing on image data, a program for implementing the method, and a storage medium storing the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional image processing apparatus displays an image corresponding to image data on a screen on a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) constituting a user interface, designates a predetermined processing range on the image displayed on the screen, and performs image processing such as trimming and color correction on the image in the designated processing range.
FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of the layout of a screen on the LCD of the conventional image processing apparatus.
As shown in FIG. 29, to define a predetermined rectangular processing range 9001 on an image displayed on a display screen 9000 (hereinafter referred to as “the window”) on the LCD, first, a starting point 9001a is designated using a mouse as a pointing device of the image processing apparatus, and then an ending point 9001b is designated at a cursor position of the mouse which has been moved. It should be noted that a shape that defines the predetermined processing range 9001 should not necessarily be rectangular, and may be other shapes, but should be set in advance to one kind of shape.
Then, to determine what kind of image processing is to be performed on an image in the predetermined processing range 9001, an indicating point 9002 (cursor) of the mouse is moved to, for example, an “Edit” button 9003 among a plurality of menu buttons displayed on a menu selecting screen fixedly displayed at an edge of the window, and a desired menu item such as “Cut” or “Copy” is selected from among edit menus displayed as a result of the cursor movement.
In the above conventional image processing apparatus, to define the predetermined processing range 9001 over a wide range, the cursor of the mouse needs to be widely moved. If the cursor of the mouse is widely moved, the ending point must be designated far away from the menu selecting screen when the starting point lies at a position close to the menu selecting screen because the menu selecting screen is fixedly displayed at an edge of the window. On the other hand, to make the ending point closer to the menu selecting screen, the starting point must be designated at a position far away from the menu selecting screen. In either case, the cursor of the mouse must be moved by a longer distance than in designation of the predetermined processing range 9001.
It should be noted that the need to widely move the cursor of the mouse as mentioned above can be eliminated by applying a document editing process performed by an image processing apparatus, described later, to image processing performed by the conventional image processing apparatus.
Regarding the above-mentioned image processing apparatus, a technique of carrying out the document editing process in which a document is edited has been proposed (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H05-189149, for example).
FIG. 30 is a view showing an example of a screen displayed on a LCD when the conventional image processing apparatus carries out the document editing process.
In carrying out the document editing process on the screen of FIG. 30, a range including a character string to be subjected to document editing on the screen displayed on the LCD is designated using a stylus pen 9004 as a pointing device. Then, a menu selecting screen 9005 including a plurality of menu items indicative of editing function types is popped up in the vicinity of the designated range, and a menu item corresponding to a desired editing function is selected from among the plurality of menu items on the menu selecting screen 9005.
In a data editing apparatus that edits a plurality of types of data such as characters and figures, when designating a starting point and an ending point of a processing range to be edited, the shape of the processing range is changed to a suitable one according to the type of data existing in the processing range or at the starting point (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H08-297668, for example). As a result, the shape of the processing range is a shape of a line or lines for character data and a rectangular shape for figure data.
Further, in a document editing apparatus that edits document data, when an indicating point on a touch-sensitive panel is moved along a trace of a specific shape in a display range, it is determined that an instruction for editing the processing range, i.e. data displayed in a range drawn by the trace has been given, and as the contents of the editing instruction, a predetermined processing command is selected from among a plurality of processing commands according to the pattern of the trace (see Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. H08-014822, for example).
Also, a variety of methods have been proposed to detect an area including predetermined information on a person's face from image data (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications (Kokai) Nos. H08-063597, 2001-216515, and 2001-183731, for example).
In the above image processing apparatus, however, it is necessary to designate the starting point 9001a and the ending point 9001b of the predetermined processing range 9001 before determining the type of image processing to be performed on an image, and hence the shape that defines the predetermined processing range 9001 needs to be set in advance to only one kind such as a rectangular shape. That is, the shape that defines the predetermined processing range 9001 cannot be changed once the starting point 9001a and the ending point 9001b of the predetermined processing range 9001 have been designated.
Since the predetermined processing range 9001 can be defined by only one kind of shape such as a rectangular or circular shape, although it is preferred that when image processing is to be performed on the entire image that represents a person's face, the shape of the processing range 9001 is rectangular, and when image processing is to be performed on a partial image such as a spot or mole on the skin of a person, the shape of the processing range 9001 is circular, it is necessary to set the shape of the processing range 9001 at least once so as to perform both types of image processing.
In the image processing as mentioned above, a plurality of types of processing can be ordinarily applied to a designated processing range, and the user can select a desired one from the plurality of types.
In the case where the method described above referring to FIG. 29 according to the prior art or the method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H05-189149 is applied to the image processing, a menu with the same format is displayed each time, and hence the user has to select a desired type from the menu each time after designating the processing range.
In the method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H08-297668, the processing range is selectively designated on a line basis or in a rectangular shape according to the type of data existing in the processing range, but the type of editing processing applied to the processing range is not taken into account. Therefore, in the case where the type of data to be edited is limited to image data, both character data and figure data included in the processing range are edited as image data, and as a result, it is impossible to change the way of designating the processing range according to whether the type of data is figure data or character data.
In the method described in Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. H08-014822, the processing range and the type of editing processing can be designated at the same time, and hence the user does not have to perform an operation for selecting the type, but has to memorize the patterns (shapes) of traces of an indicating point in association with a plurality of types.